Tempus Mutare
by PotterPerfect 07
Summary: Ron accidentally sends himself and Hermione back in time to the Georgian Era, England. When they are accused of witchcraft, and Hermione is sent to jail, will Ron be able to save her and return safely back to Hogwarts? Completely R/Hr. Non DH compatible.


**A/N:** Hey everyone! I actually wrote this for an English project. Our assignment was to write a short story...and being the HP nerd that I am, I asked my teacher if I could do a fanfic. And she said it was ok as long as i fulfilled the requirements. So....here it is...

**Disclaimer:** Siriusly, i _just_ told you it was an _English Project._

_****Keep in mind that i was under a specific length limit, and i actually went a little over. So...if it is short or rushed...sorry...it was being graded, so i thought i'd stick to the teachers rules. **_

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Tempus Mutare

It was six o'clock at night, and the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were slowly fading to dusk. The leaves of the Whomping Willow tree rustled gently in the light breeze, and the slapping of the shallow waves against the edge of the lake was all that could be heard. It was a different story inside the castle however, as two seventh year students sat in the library.

"Hermione…" Ron groaned, tilting his chair back as far as it would go.

"What, Ron?" Hermione answered snippily. It had, after all, been the fourth time in half an hour that he had interrupted her. She was starting to get annoyed.

"Are you almost done?"

"No, I'm not. We've been here for half an hour and you've already begun complaining. It wouldn't kill you to study yourself, you know." She turned away from him and buried her nose in her textbook once again.

Ron sighed. It had most definitely not been his idea to come to the library, but when Hermione came rushing into the Gryffindor common room explaining feverishly how she had misinterpreted one of her Ancient Rune charts on an exam and needed to check the library, insisting Ron come with her, he was not about to argue. No one ever argued with Hermione when it came to schoolwork, and besides, she had promised him that she would let him take her for a ride on his broom if he kept her company, something she had previously been "too dignified" (in other words terrified), to do.

Nevertheless, Ron was growing increasingly bored with the library, a feeling that he experienced quite often when surrounded by books upon books of educational enlightenment. Standing up, he stretched his arms over his head and leaned over Hermione's chair. Resting his elbows on her shoulders, he looked over her head at the book she was reading. Giving up trying to read it, Ron stood up straight, and thinking he might as well leave Hermione alone whilst she was so immersed in her studies, he began to wander aimlessly around the library. After five minutes of this, he realized he was distracting many of the library's inhabitants, not to mention Madame Pince, the Hogwarts Librarian, who kept throwing him repeatedly malevolent glares over the top of her spectacles. Grabbing a book at random, he brought it back to the table where Hermione sat, seemingly unaware that Ron had ever left.

Ron sat down and opened the book; it was very old. The pages were timeworn and bore the unmistakable remnants of spills, crumbs, tears and various hexes gone wrong. Deciding it was best to at least appear to be reading, lest Madame Pince turn up for her nightly inspection, Ron scanned the first paragraph of the page.

"Hermione, what's this?' Ron asked, pointing to a word written in an untidy scrawl at the top right hand corner of the page. Hermione leaned over to look, and her brow crinkled slightly as she examined it.

"I'm not sure….." she muttered, barely audible. "_Tempus Mutare_ ….I've never heard of it."

"Hermione Granger, not knowing a spell? The apocalypse has arrived!" he joked, mocking her.

"Shut up, Ron." Hermione turned away from him, feigning offense.

"Sorry…" Ron mumbled, and when she did not look at him, he took her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. This caused Hermione to look up and smile sweetly at Ron, leaning over and kissing his cheek.

Once this little display of affection had subsided, Hermione turned back to Ron's book.

"Really though, I've never heard of this spell, let alone tried it." she announced.

"Well, there's a first time for everything!" Ron exclaimed excitedly, and before Hermione had even had time to register what he was about to do, Ron had grabbed his wand out of his pocket, raised it high in the air, and, still holding her hand, whispered "Tempus Mutare!"

There was a flash of orange light and Hermione screamed as she and Ron both experienced the feeling of being pulled through a narrow tube. As time elapsed, the two accelerated until they were thrown violently onto the ground.

Struggling to his feet, Ron held out his hand and helped Hermione up. The two looked around, completely bemused. They were standing on a dirt road in the middle of what looked like a town square. Far off in the distance, they could make out the horizon, the sun setting brilliantly. There were several people clustered around the open doors of shops and taverns, trying to escape the bitter cold.

"Uh, Hermione, what's going on?" Ron asked. For these people were not modern day people, nor were they wizards. The women of this small town were dressed in long corseted dresses and the men in breeches and a tailcoat.

"Ron! We've traveled back in time! That spell you did…" Understanding flitted into Hermione's eyes as she stared at Ron. "It's taken us back to the Georgian era!"

"The what? How do you know?" Ron asked nervously.

"See the poster outside that tavern? It's an advertisement to join the Royal Navy, and to serve King George the III. We've entered a non-magical town in the Georgian era!" All at once Hermione's brain went into overdrive, as it usually did in sticky situations, and she began to speak very rapidly to herself.

"Hermione, slow down, I can't understand you…." Ron grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. Before he could get a single word out, however, Hermione grabbed his hand and pulled him into the nearest alleyway. With a complicated motion of her hand and a hurriedly uttered incantation, she had swapped their Hogwarts uniforms for authentic Georgian era wear. Ron was now clothed in breeches, a tailcoat, a cotton shirt, a neck cloth, and boots; Hermione in an ankle length dress complete with corset and gloves, her hair pulled back into an elaborate bun of extravagant height.

"Ow!" Ron exclaimed. "These boots hurt! What did you change our clothes for?"

"Ron, we have to _blend in_! And I'm sorry about the boots, but they can't hurt as much as this awful corset. I can hardly breathe—" she was cut off by the loud scream of a woman.

"WITCH!" the woman screamed, pointing at Hermione. "HELP! PLEASE HELP!"

The sound of the woman's cry had obviously carried; all at once, the tavern door burst open and people came running from all directions. All of these people seemed to be following a man who appeared to be leading the mob. He was the closest to Ron and Hermione and by the looks of it, had no intention of halting.

The villagers had begun to form a circle around Ron and Hermione, though no one dared come within five feet of them, save for the man in the lead who marched straight up to Hermione and grabbed her roughly by the back of her dress. Hermione screamed and dropped her wand, which Ron hastened to pick up.

"Hermione! Get off her! Leave her alone!" Ron made to push the man who had seized Hermione, but was unsuccessful as a second, burlier man had taken hold of his collar.

"She's a witch, she is!" cried the lady who had revealed them. "I saw her, only seconds ago, perform magic!"

"Indeed," added an old man standing on the other side of the circle. "I too saw it, from my shop window."

"But surely not!" one particularly brave woman cried out. "They appear to be normal citizens."

"You didn't see them mere minutes ago," protested the first lady. "They had on different clothes! She changed them, the girl did! She's a witch!"

"No, please," Hermione begged "We're naught but humble citizens, merely passing through. You mustn't deem us harmful!"

"Quite!" added Ron, obviously catching on to Hermione's plan of using historical language.

"Then what, pray tell, is your purpose here?" asked the man holding Hermione, leering at her.

"Uh…we're just, you know….needed to buy some….." Ron trailed off, realizing that he was just making the situation worse.

"Very well. If that is all, a highly unconvincing story," The man holding Hermione spoke. "Then you, witch, are hereby subjected to prison, come with me!" He began to yank Hermione through the crowd and down a narrow side street.

"Ron!" she cried helplessly. Without her wand, she was completely powerless against the man. "Ron!" But there was nothing Ron could do, not while he was still in the grasp of the burly man.

"And what becomes of him?" asked a woman, who was holding tight onto the shoulders of her children, as though protecting them from Ron.

"I say he is to be punished, just as her! He was, after all, an accomplice!" His cry was met with a general upheaval of agreement. Ron was not paying them any mind however, as he was still struggling against the man binding him.

"Let her go! I'll do anything, please, just let her go!" he didn't know if he could bare it if Hermione got hurt here in this unfamiliar place; whatever happened to her, it would be all his fault. He couldn't let that happen. Not to her. Not to his Hermione.

Throwing caution to the winds Ron kicked the man in the shins with all his strength simultaneously pulling out his wand from his sleeve, where he had hidden it, and began to use the stupefy hex on one after the other. One by one the villagers dropped to the ground completely unconscious. Once they were all stupefied, Ron ran full out in the direction the man carrying Hermione had gone.

Running as fast as he could down the narrow side street, Ron spotted a dark, dingy looking building at the end of the street. It had moss and ivy covering most of its surface, and a large sign on the door reading 'Jail'. This was it. He did not take the time to build up the courage to do what he knew he must. He didn't even have a plan; but that wasn't important now. He needed to save Hermione; that was his plan, his purpose, his justification for acting on noble impulse.

Sprinting us the steps he tried to open the door, but if was locked.

"Merlin's pants!" he growled and began kicking and pounding on the door until he heard the clinking of chains and a man opened the door. Before he could inquire as to what authority Ron had to be kicking on his door, Ron had stupefied him as well. Stepping over his filthy body, Ron crossed the threshold and ran down the corridor. The place was putrid smelling, grimy and foul. He hated every inch of it.

Suddenly, Ron heard a man's voice coming from the corridor to his left and then a girl's voice pleading with him. Hurrying toward the sound of the voices, Ron sped up when he rounded a corner and saw the man gripping Hermione tightly. Hermione was locked inside the cell, kneeling on the ground, her dress completely soiled by the dirt-caked floor. Her hair was coming out of its elaborate bun, and her previously neat and orderly appearance was now disheveled and unkempt.

"You're not so bad looking, for a witch…" the man began, sneering down at her from across the bars of the cell. "It's too bad the death penalty is still intact in this town, or I might think of keeping you around-"

"HERMIONE!" Ron had finally reached Hermione's cell and was panting as though he had just swum the entire length of the English Channel.

"You-" started the man, stumbling towards Ron.

"Me." Ron answered before pulling out his wand, pointing it directly at the man and sending him flying down the corridor, where his head collided with the stone wall, knocking him out. Ron then aimed his wand at Hermione's cell wall and with a bang it exploded.

"Ron, oh Ron." Hermione sobbed burying her face in her hands. Ron walked over to her and helped her to her feet. He grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her face, hugging her tightly. He looked into her eyes and tried not to think of what would have happened if he hadn't gotten to her in time, if the death penalty really had been her fate.

"Hermione, we need to get out of here."

"I k-know." She sobbed "C-can you think of the s-spell that brought us here?"

In answer to that Ron held Hermione tightly around the waist, pulled out both their wands, handed Hermione hers and said "Tempus Mutare!"

Once again they encountered the flash of orange light and compressing tube before they were hurled onto the ground of the Hogwarts library.

Standing up, Ron and Hermione looked around; they were home.

"Ron, Hermione?" came a voice they knew all to well. They watched as their best friend, Harry Potter, rounded the corner of the nearest bookshelf, walking toward them.

"Hey guys, I've been looking for you everywhere! It's been nearly four hours since you went to the- WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN'S PANTS HAPPENED TO YOU TWO?" Harry all but screamed. He stared from a sweaty Ron in his breeches to a sobbing Hermione, makeup running, hair disarrayed, and dressed in a corseted dress.

Ron and Hermione both hastened to explain, but Harry interrupted them.

"You know what- I don't really want to know," he decided, turning around and walking straight out of the library. Whatever mischief they had gotten up to tonight- he thought it was best if he was kept ignorant on this one.

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**A/N:** Ok...hope you like it. And if you did then PLEASE give a review. It only takes 3 seconds, and it really makes the writer feel good about their work. If you, yourself, are a writer, then you know how it is, and you know how much it means...so please, just review. ooh, and anyone who can guess what tempus mutare is --- then you get free chocolate frogs and a sugar quill (cyber ones...anyway...). lol. And remember...i was on a LENGTH LIMIT. So...sorry if it was rushed, but thats what my teacher asked for!

Anyway...THANKS FOR READING. AND KEEP THE HARRY POTTER ALIVE~!!!!!!! ~AT


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